Tuning-pin and adjusting-screw for pianos



(No Model.)

A. FELLDIN. TUNING PIN AND ADJUSTING SOREW FOR PIANOS.

Patented Nov. 26, 1895.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ABRAHAM FELLDIN, OF AUBURN, NEIV YORK.

TUNING-PIN AND ADJUSTING-SCREW FOR PIANO'S.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 550,366, dated November 26, 1895.

Application filedJ'une 29, 1894. Serial No- 5l6,048. (N0 model.)

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ABRAHAM FELLDIN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Auburn, in the county of Cayuga and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tuning- Iins and Adjusting-Screws for Pianos and other Stringed Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to means for stretching and tuning the strings of pianos and other stringed instruments; and it consists of the improved construction of the adj ustingscrews for facilitating the connection of the same with the strings, all as hereinafter described and claimed, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a transverse section of the stringframe, sounding-board, and bridge of a piano, showing my improvements in the tuning and adjusting pins. Fig. 2 is a detail showing one of the adjusting-screws, partly in side elevation and partly in sectional elevation, also showing part of a string and a ball for connecting the string and the screw.

In the metallic side bar a of the stringframe in which the tuning-pins b are set I make the taper holes 0 for said pins in an acute angle to the strings (Z, said angle being such that the stress of the strings on the pins keeps them tight in the taper holes or sockets, and they do not work slack, and thus keep the strings in tune much longer or continuously without any other means of fastenin g them, and on the pins thus angularly arranged I coil the strings upwardly from where the ends are secured in the holes m, so that the stress of the strings draws the coils down close on each other in a compact condition more favorable to the keeping of the strings in tune than when the strin are wound from above downward, in which condition the coils are liable to shift on the pins and alter the tune.

To facilitate boring the holes in inclined relation to the strings, the bar a is made with surface planes where the holes are to be bored at right angles to the lines of the holes, whereby the drill-points are relieved of the side thrusts to which they would be subject ball or bead 2' for each string, preferably of the same radius as that of the socket, which, being strung on the string andseated in the cavity of a screw, forms a simple bearing, al-

lowing the screw to turn freely for adjusting.

the string and being adapted for fixing in place in the cavity of the screw more readily than a notched pin fitted to a bored socket in the end of the screw, which has to be carefully directed to enter the end of the pin in the notch, whereas the ball or head will keep its position on the string and will enter the socket more readily and with much less care than the pin will;

The part j indicates the opposing bar of the string-frame, 7c the sounding-board, and lthe bridge, which will be in any ordinary or approved arrangement.

I am aware that taper pins considerably enlarged above the portion on which the strings are wound and milled in the taper portion have been used in taper holes bored at right angles to the pull of the strings, as in the patent to Games, No. 352,395; but these do not hold well, and they have to be frequently tuned.

I am also aware that taper pins have been fitted at a slightly-acute angle to the pull of the strings in taper holes through a thin pinholding plate with adjusting-nuts on the under side of the plate to hold the pins, as in the patent to Smith, No. 488,483; but this involves considerable additional expense and the trouble of adjusting the nuts every time the strings are tuned, and I am also aware that a taper-tuning key is used in a hole at right angles to the pull of the string with an adjustingscrew under the plate in addition to the pin inserted in a hole formed at an 0btuse angle to the pull of the string, as in the Patent No. 420,914, and I make no claim to the devices of these several patents.

I claim 5 The combination With the strings of a piano or other musical instrument, of tension adjusting screws having sockets in the ends to be connected With the strings, and perforated ball or bead bearings strung on the strings 10 for connecting With said sockets, said tension screws being supported in the usual tension screw supporting bar substantially as described.

Signed at Auburn, in the county of Cayuga and State of New York, this 28th day of May, 15 A. D. 1894.

ABRAHAM FELLDIN.

Witnesses:

FRED B. OATTON, BREDO HERMANSON. 

